Upgrading Vault and Inventor from 2011

[laura.heatwole]

We are currently running Vault Pro 2011 (Windows Server 2003 R2 Std x64 SP2) and Vault & Inventor Pro 2011 (10 clients all on Windows 7 Pro SP1) on our network.  We are ready to upgrade to 2013; however, since it is a one person show, I would like to spread the upgrade over two weekends.

What is the best path for upgrade?  Should we upgrade to 2012 first then 2013?  Should the clients be upgraded first or the server?  Are their patches available so that different versions work with each other during the week in-between?

Thanks in advance.

[JamesMcMullen]

Hello Laura,

I am unsure what you would be saving jumping to 2012 on the first weekend and moving to 2013 on the following weekend.  Unfortunately, I am not seeing an easy way to stretch this over 2 weekends.  I see two possibilities which I will get to in a bit.  In both scenarios, I would upgrade the server first.  Take a back-up of the 2011 environment and if possible test the restore in 2013 so that you can see if you have problems.  That is what we do here.  It makes for an easy predictable upgrade if that can be done (both in time and expectations).  One possibility depends on how large your vault is.  You might be able to update the clients while the restore is happening.  Another possibility would be to install the 2012 back patches on the 2011 clients.  This will work since in 2013 we support the notion of forward compatibility which means 2012 clients can talk to 2013 servers. Also depending if you trust your user base, you can always have them install the client or back patch when they come in after the weekend update.

-Jim

[Raider_71]

Hi Laura,

I have also created a post for nearly the same thing. (http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Vault/Upgrading-Vault-Pro-2011-to-2013/td-p/3569430)

If I may ask, how did you end up doing the migration from Vault 2011 to Vault 2013?

Also, are you happy with Vault 2013 in terms of stability etc compared to 2011?

Thanks so much!

Pieter

[laura.heatwole]

Pieter,

I ended up going direct from 2011 to 2013.  In hindsight, I probably should have moved up to 2012 until 2013 issued its first service pack.  We have had some instability issues, with some already addressed with Hotfixes.  

If you are working with 2011 and still have purging capabilities, I recommend not upgrading.  We lost the ability to purge when we upgraded to 2013 (a known Autodesk issue).  This has created major server disk space and 3rd party software issues for us.

[Raider_71]

Hi Laura thanks for the reply.

Ok so besides the initial issues you had would you say that Vault 2013 is stable in production? Let’s assume that the Purge function is not a major concern for me right now.

Also as a matter of interest how big is your database and filestore?

Thanks again,

Pieter